in the fall i was anxious to re-stain and repair the deck in our back yard.

it was peeling and pretty nasty and warped in some places. our toddler was in constant danger of getting splinters or tripping and falling on her face.

however my husband convinced me to hold off, and said that maybe in the spring we could just tear out and redo the whole deck instead. that deck had seen many happy days, but it was time.

over the next few months our idea of building a new deck morphed/snowballed into building a flagstone patio.

the main reason was that we figured that if we were going to invest time and money, then we might as well make it something that would be low maintenance and that we wouldn't have to redo again in 10 years.

so in february we started demo. i fully anticipated relaxing on my stone patio by the end of the month. at least by march.





everyone helped with demo, and it was disgusting. pics of a cute toddler are much cuter than pics of us at this point. why is dirt only cute on babies?

when we found tons of rat poop and spider eggs underneath the deck, i was more happy than ever that we weren't putting up a deck again. the underside of those things are a magnet for nasty apparently!

we also found that part of the deck was built over a concrete pad. this meant that we would have to lay the flagstone a couple different ways on the concrete vs the ground.



the dogs were confused.



we needed lots of breaks.

the demo alone was a tone of work. then the next step was digging out the area on the ground where we would be laying stone.



by now it was march, and the texas spring weather was not working in our favor. this was just a weekend project for us, and some how every weekend seemed to get rained out.

once we dug out the area we wanted, we then filled it with a couple inches of decomposed granite and rented a tamper to flatten it down.

we thought we were done with the hardest part.

ha!

next we had the stone delivered, pressure washed everything, and then dry laid the stones. it felt like the home stretch.



all that was left using some cement to stick down the stones that were laid on the concrete, and then we'd fill the cracks and seal everything.

however, i forgot that i was married to a perfectionist. sticking down the stones and laying them in the perfect place where they would be perfectly level and perfectly sloping away from the house required hours of measuring, placing, and the pulling up the stones and doing it all over again if it wasn't perfect.

this was our life for a month. if i had been the project manager on this part, i would have just eyeballed it, slapped it down, and call it a day. in the end i'm glad my husband took the time to make things look professional, but at the time i was so over it! notice i forgot to take pics of this step. i think i was too traumatized.

that seemingly simple step of sticking down the stones ended up being the most complicated part of the project, so after that we could actually see the finish line!

we filled all the cracks with concrete sand, and then sealing the stones and cracks.

tadaaaa!




by mid may we were enjoying our patio. yes, i said MAY!!
i never thought that day would come.



i got a steal on some comfy patio furniture via craigslist, and we were ready to finally enjoy this thing!



this definitely took the prize for the most exhausting diy of all time. it was back breaking, and never ending. but worth it? now that we're on the other side of things i think i can say yes. i can also say never again! lol.




we've certainly been living it up in the backyard since we finished!

this patio was also a part of my husband's dream of creating a backyard theater, so we're planning to really make the most of all our hard work!



i thought i would be burned out on doing yard work/diys for the rest of my life after that one, but now i'm actually feeling inspired to tackle some new projects. stay tuned...one of them has to do with that big black thing against our exterior wall.



we'll have lived in this house for 5 years next month, so it feels good to give it a little bit of sprucing up in honor of the occasion. hopefully now this patio will last even longer than this house, because we are so done with this project! :)

for the past 6 months or so my girl and i have been going to a mommy and me sort of gym class that's offered by the city. it's 3 mornings a week, so it gives us a good routine, and a chance for her to burn off some energy early in the day so that i can get a few things done later! :)



these pics were all taken back in the early days of the class when everything was still new...hence the much younger looking baby. i can't believe how much she's grown up in the past few months! and her hair has grown like crazy!



i would have thought that parachute was the coolest thing ever when i was a kid. actually i still kind of do.




hopefully my kiddo has learned a lot about how to interact with society through this class. it's definitely been good for helping her to learn how to wait her turn, share, sit down and listen, etc... although she certainly still has her moments that she forgets...she's almost 2 after all! ;)



i really enjoy having this special time with her though. hopefully we're making memories!

i would be a pathetic home diy blogger. first of all, i'm posting this about 6 months late, and secondly, i'm completely horrible at taking in progress pictures when i'm working on any kind of project.

when we bought our house almost 5 years ago, it was a flip that had been sitting on the market for a long time that we got a great deal on in a neighborhood we loved. however, since it was a flip, a lot of the finishes and upgrades weren't something we would have chosen, but it took me awhile to feel justified in ripping any of it out since a lot of it was new.

but this dark granite tiled fireplace had been glaring at me ever since we moved in. it was the first thing you would see when you walked through the front door, and it felt like it sucked the light out of the room.



sorry, i forgot to take a before pic before i started demo. but another thing that always annoyed me was that the tiles were off center! ugh! i just couldn't wait to get started!

one day on an impulse i just started ripping off tiles with the hope that there would be some beautiful brick underneath. alas, there was brick, however it was covered in gunk and not really salvageable.



so plan B was to put a better looking tile on the fireplace. we picked a light split faced travertine to kind of brighten the room and to tie in with travertine that's in the kitchen. also since part of the charm of split faced tile is it's imperfections, it was a good kind of a good easy medium for my husband to learn tile installation. he got the fun of fixing my impulsive demo job!



but in the end it was completely worth it! for about $100, this was a high impact project that really made the house feel so much more like our own.



ok, enough pics mom.

parsley sage rosemary and thyme....



scarborough faire is one of my favorites, and i absolutely can't go without getting that song stuck in my head!

out first trip there was last year, and we loved it so much that we decided to make it an annual tradition! jia really loved it this year too, and we were able to go with some friends this time!













it's just a fun chance for grown ups to play make believe and totally escape from reality for a bit! can't wait until next year! :)

our little munchkin turns two next month, and we haven't had a vacation in a VERY long time, so we decided to take a little trip now while she still flies for free!

a couple months ago one of my very best friends was diagnosed with breast cancer. she is a friend who is more like a sister, so my heart has been with her on this awful journey. i truly wish i could take her pain...but i can't, so i threw her a party.



a green gables tea party/hair party/birthday party.




with chemo and her birthday around the corner it was time to prepare. if you look online for hair cutting chemo parties, you pretty much just find ladies drinking a lot of wine together and then shaving their heads. not exactly what i was going for. :P

my friend has gorgeous red hair and is a lover of all things avonlea, so it just made sense to throw a green gables tea party...with plenty of help from some more amazing friends!





after all, anne shirley had to lose her hair for a far less romantic reason, so this is a party she would definitely approve of!

we invited a hair stylist to cut pixies for whoever wanted to shed hair in support, and a make up artist to help my friend adjust to her new look. all this happened while we watched anne of green gables and drank tea, raspberry cordial, and ate goodies!






we wrapped things up with a birthday celebration, and giving gifts of super cute hats, head coverings, and chemo gear to make sure my friend was all prepared for the days ahead! and doesn't she look adorable in that pixie?!



but most of all i hope we helped prepare her by showering her with love! i don't think i've ever been to a party that was so filled with love and support! i guess breast cancer can bring out "bosom" friends, and definitely kindred spirits!

i don't blog nearly often enough, but pretty much the only reason i blog at all is because my mind is like a sieve these day and i want to note down all the special memories that i can before they fall right out of my head. so most things i write may not interest anyone other than me, but for me they are little things about my baby that i just want to make sure i remember.

jia is 21 months old now, and she has friends! she's just starting to sort of play with other kids, as opposed to just parallel playing.

one of her best friends at this point is a little darling named cora. cora is really almost more like a cousin, because her parents are some of our favorite people in the world and they live just around the corner from us.



so these two spend a lot of time together. they're exactly 9 months apart in age, so cora is baby enough that jia is fascinated with her, and jia is big enough, that cora thinks she's cool.



for whatever reason, jia calls cora "iya". this is a regular conversation between jia and my husband.

husband: "jia, can you say CORA?"
jia: "iya".
husband: "say CO-"
jia: "CO-"
husband: "RA"
jia: "RA"
husband: "cora".
jia" "iya".

jia and cora don't know many of the rules of proper social interaction, but jia has only hit cora over the head with a toy once, so in toddler terms i think that pretty much means they're best friends. one of jia's favorite games is stealing cora's pacifier out of her mouth so that cora will chase her. consequently this is not cora's favorite game. cora's favorite game is trying to block jia from going through a tunnel or down a slide at the playground. when your best friend is a toddler, i guess you get used to playing a little bit rough. :)



as you know, sharing can be an issue for toddlers, but jia has figured out a way to use the whole system of sharing to her benefit with cora. whenever cora has a toy that jia wants, jia simply starts bringing cora a bunch of other toys until she gets distracted and turns her attention to a new one, allowing jia to snatch away the desired toy. it's great having a best friend with a short attention span...at least when you're 1.



anyways, it's a lot of fun seeing these two cuties grow up together, and i'm so looking forward to seeing them grow together through the years! love these girls!